LAS VEGAS — The NBA is hoping to secure the buy-in for its newest and arguably most ambitious project, the in-season tournament slated to begin next season.
Buy-in from players, coaches and fans – all hoping they’ll care. The risk is that the reverse will happen, that by implementing a pool game similar to a football format that culminates in a championship on December 9 in Las Vegas, a message will be sent that the league itself will not don’t care about early season basketball.
Traditionalists will cringe when the 82-game season gets slightly disrupted, but it looks like the constant movement of players has torn that traditional fabric a bit. The idea has been around for years, and eventually it will be implemented, pushed by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
The nuances have been explained, but the bottom line is that the NBA loves the effect of the play-in tournament and it’s about to stay, which has created so much meaningful basketball in the post-All-break. Star that the teams were in full foam for three months before the start of the playoffs.
Boosting players and fans for those early winter nights with extra stakes on Tuesday and Friday nights from November 3-28 (excluding Election Day) is what the league hopes to accomplish here.
The play-in fits perfectly into the rhythm of the regular season, while it is much more disruptive. The prize money for each player ($500,000) might be an incentive to put the brakes on load management — hard to explain given that early-season games didn’t produce much attrition anyway — but it’s clear that the NBA is looking at the long term and not just the immediate here.
NBA senior vice president Evan Wasch, creator of the play-in tournament, said there are five measurable metrics for success: audience for group play and knockout round vs. normal regular season play, attendance, social media analysis, direct fan feedback and commentary. from players and teams.
“The biggest job comes after it’s done,” NBA senior vice president Joe Dumars said on a recent call with select reporters. “How can we make this better? What did we get right? What did we get wrong? It’ll be interesting to hear feedback on that, because that’s where you can improve and make it a much better product.
“There’s the question of ‘why’ and whether or not it will work,” Wasch said. “Most GMs didn’t necessarily care. What interested them was that it would take nothing away from my team’s pursuit of the [championship]. And so it can in no way be materially disruptive. We talked about versions where there were long breaks in the season to play them, and GMs thought that was too far.
Wasch believes that having tournament matches incorporated into the schedule, with play and pool format before teams qualify for the knockout round, will not negatively affect team standings or approaches. .
Additionally, the fact that the NBA is entering into a new media rights agreement that will go into effect in two years cannot be discounted. It’s something they can sell to TV partners or streaming companies, thinking it’ll be so successful that everyone will benefit financially.
“Then obviously it will benefit the general managers, the coaches, the players, you know, through BRI (basketball-related income),” Wasch said. “So our ability to explain why this was so important as a new tentpole for the league, combined with a low-disruptive approach that we took, is really what drew people in.”
Neither Dumars nor Wasch would dare to say every team and every general manager is on board for this, but the league’s ambitious vision is for it to become such a regular part of NBA life that it’s second nature in time – that incoming players don’t even think of this as something new but an added incentive at the start of the season, and a trip to Las Vegas in early December for their troubles.
Wasch used other sports as a guide, such as tennis and golf having distinct disciplines throughout the year that bring out the best of the best, but the rhythm of a basketball season is totally different.
They have yet to discuss an end to Elam or the incorporation of international teams into this setup, but with Silver and his affections for other sports, nothing can be counted. The NBA hasn’t been afraid to play with things on the edges, like the All-Star Game format, which Wasch used as a “perfect example” for making players and fans care in 2020.
This All-Star weekend was directly in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s unexpected death and in Michael Jordan’s adopted hometown of Chicago – and the fourth quarter of that game produced some compelling drama that really didn’t matter. not been seen since in the mid-season showcase.
“There was a perfect storm of events and changes leading up to this 2020 All-Star Game which created one of the most competitive games we’ve ever had, and for anyone in the arena the energy was palpable,” Wasch said. “The whole crowd standing, hearts pounding, audience off the charts. Again, [it] meant nothing, there was no result at this All-Star Game more than anything. But with players competing at this level, fans were conditioned to care. And we think that filters players and teams.
What will determine this as a true success will be the matchups. If there’s some extra help in December from the big-name teams we only see play against each other twice a year, or if LeBron James and Stephen Curry once again take part in it outside of the regular schedule, people will flock to television screens just for its novelty and curiosity.
If it’s lesser-known teams or players hitting the action these Tuesday and Friday nights, leading up to a ho-hum final four heading to Las Vegas, Silver will have eggs in his face and the league. will have to reassess.
But it’s clear the league feels like it needs to do something to spice up the regular season, which seems a bit odd at first glance.
The game itself should be enough, but guess the NBA got credit for trying – now that’s for everyone to care.